I am so excited for the newest online courses to come out of the Just Rural! Project. Geared toward victim service professionals, they provide excellent foundational information on a trauma-informed response to child sexual abuse. The first course, called Bringing Hope, takes less than 15 minutes to complete.

In the past, I’ve used New Year’s as an opportunity to take a hard look at my life and things that I want to change about it. More often than not, this involved dieting, budgeting, and goals that involved pants sizes. In 2014, I’m making a different kind of resolution.

I’ve recently had the terrifying experience of gift shopping for a few little feminists in my life. Of course, I went into it with a plan. I was going to get fun but educational toys that didn’t confine my tiny friends to traditional gender roles. Sounds simple enough, right?

Driving home yesterday to some of my favorite Christmas jams, I heard the announcement that Nelson Mandela passed away at the age of 95. Not surprised or sad, I thought that if anyone deserves a rest it’s probably him. Truly, his work and commitment to ending racial oppression in South Africa seems like a beacon of hope for how broken societies can heal.

In the (gross) article 5 Reasons to Date a Girl with an Eating Disorder (please note that the general tone of the content on this site is disturbing--please practice self care), the author shares some perspectives on the “benefits” of dating a person with an eating disorder. I will offer a fast reaction to this infuriating article, and then share some actual facts that you might even find to be useful (Warning: the time spent reading the original article may not be).

In a recent article Matthew Peyton wrote about a U.K. barrister’s position that conversations about accountability for rape are sanitized. She expressed the opinion that victims hold some moral responsibility for the rapes perpetrated against them. I call this victim-blaming. As such, I’ve decided to rewrite this commentary.

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